EAST HAVEN >> Retired police sergeant and Democratic mayoral candidate Gary DePalma lashed back Monday against demands from the Republican Party that he perform an audit on his 2013 campaign finance reports, calling the complaint "frivolous" and adding the error was minor in nature.

Last Wednesday Republican Town Chairman Carl Ruggiero announced a review of DePalma's campaign finance reports showed "that his campaign under-reported its gross receipts to date by $3,635.25 -- where he should have reported a total of $23,745.02, he only reported $20,109.77."

DePalma's camp responded by acknowledging the error, but campaign manager Ed Sabatino said Monday the mishap related to a single line item in the report -- a sum that should have been carried over from DePalma's exploratory committee and into his campaign filing.

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On Friday DePalma's campaign treasurer, Tara Esposito, filed an amended form with Town Clerk's Office reflecting the carry-over.

Ruggiero, in his statement Wednesday, blasted DePalma's campaign, calling the discrepancy a "massive under-reporting of income."

He noted the under-reporting sum represents 15 percent of DePalma's total campaign war-chest and added it's "the equivalent of losing track of $13.5 million dollars out of the town's $89 million budget."

DePalma's statement, drafted through Sabatino, contends Ruggiero "continues to use smear tactics to distract voters from the real issues.

"The fact is our treasurer is a wonderful volunteer, since she made the discovery, we've worked together on implementing a quality assurance procedure to ensure these minor discrepancies are eliminated going forward."

To date, DePalma's campaign has a balance of $4.421.24.

His opponent for the Democratic ticket, New Haven high school teacher Jack Stacey, has a balance of $12.158.90. Incumbent Republican Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. has a balance of $26,321.16.

DePalma's statement further notes if "Mr. Ruggiero paid as much attention to his duties as Republican Party chairman as he does to my campaign finances then maybe our quality of life would be better, our students' test scores higher and our legal matters resolved."

The town's Democratic caucus is slated to begin 7 p.m. tonight at the senior center while the Republican caucus will be held 7 p.m. Wednesday at the same locations.